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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Aussie crime fiction blogger interviewed by ABC!

Today on ABC.net.au (the website of one of Australia's biggest broadcasters) there is a great interview by Corey Hague with Australian crime fiction afficianado and book blogger Karen Chisholm, creator of AustCrimeFiction.org, described as "one of the best resources of its kind on the web".

In the interview, "Murder she reads and writes", Chisholm talks about the inspiration for starting her blog, the attraction of crime fiction, being honest with reviews when it comes to books you don't enjoy, and the impact of the digital world and social media on the relationship between authors and readers, amongst other things.

"I've always been a dedicated reader, but very early on crime fiction increasingly became my books of choice," says Chisholm. "I'm very drawn to good characterisation, good plots, a purpose to the narrative and some insight into humanity. Good crime fiction ticks all of the boxes and then some. You can learn a lot about yourself and about other people from reading crime fiction."

Chisholm also refers to the 1,000 True Fan Theory, when discussing the impact of social media. You can read more about that theory here.

You can read the full ABC interview with Chisholm here. It's a good read for book bloggers and book bloggers, no matter where you are on the planet. What do you think of the interview? Of mainstream media taking a closer look at the impact of book blogging? Have you visited AustCrimeFiction? Have you read any Australian crime novels? I'd love to read your thoughts and comments.

3 comments:

The first book blog I ever stumbled across was AustCrimeFiction and it literally changed my reading forever - all for the better. Karen does a superb job with the site and keeping up to date with reviews and upcoming titles etc. It's great that she's being recognised for her work and that book bloggers in general are starting to be seen as relevant by some media outlets.

I think the 1000 true fans theory is a sound one in principle but IMHO it breaks down for most writers because they simply don't have the same resource streams. Authors don't generally have paid live gigs, merchandising etc to supplement their main artistic product - they only have the product which for most is a maximum of one book per year. Authors walk away with what percentage of a book's sale price...15%? Even if we said 25% they need more like 10,000 true fans to make anything like a living.

Thanks for the link to the interview Craig - it was fun and nice of them to notice the books / authors on the site.

Bernadette - our direct experience with the 1,000 true fan concept has been very positive. It does, however, require work and a bit of thinking outside the traditional publishing box. It has been done successfully by authors as well as musicians. Science Fiction authors are particularly adept.

Oh I can certainly see how musicians would be able to utilise the 1,000 true fan concept Karen, and perhaps in these days of digital media it will be easier for authors - they could do podcasts and short stories and things to supplement 'the book' and perhaps even turning up to conventions and things. I was reflecting on 'my' favourite authors of whom I am a true fan (e.g. Adrian Hyland) - what else can I buy or pay for in order to keep him writing other than his book, 'cos whatever it is I would do it :)